But, how did I come to this decision? When I think about it, a lot of it had to do with my vacation last September, visiting my dear friends and family in Houston, Tyler, and exploring the Texas Hill Country. For the last several years, I've been thinking about what my next career step would be, but also about what I might do in retirement. I had this half-formed idea in the back of my head of having a piece of property somewhere with a large house that would serve as a bed and breakfast. My kitchen would be set up for cooking classes and supper club style dinners. I would have a huge vegetable garden, fruit trees, chickens, and maybe bees for honey. The one thing I couldn't visualize was where...until that trip to the Hill Country, exploring the amazing wine region it has become in the last 15 years. And, I couldn't get the idea out of my head.
Going into that winter and spring back in Pennsylvania, I continued working very hard, teaching classes, managing my cooking school program. But, I wasn't enjoying myself anymore. I was working so many hours, constantly exhausted, and incredibly frustrated with my work situation. I began to daydream about the bed and breakfast, I even started doing research on what it takes to open and run one. I signed up for a Texas Hill Country real estate email newsletter, fantasizing over new property listings every week. And then one day, I had an epiphany--as long as I was living in Pennsylvania, all I would likely ever have of this dream was an inbox of realtor emails.
So, I embraced the idea that nothing in my life was going to change until I decided to change it. The biggest obstacle was my condo--as much as I loved it and enjoyed living in it, my mortgage payment kept me tied to my job at Sur La Table, and therefore to Pennsylvania. So, in early March, I decided to put my condo on the market, and when it sold, I was going to quit and move back to Texas, regardless of whether I had a job. My amazing parents were so supportive, they agreed to let me land with them in Tyler until I sorted something out.
Right around the same time, I started to apply for jobs in Texas--as excited as I was about the bed and breakfast idea, I knew it would take time for that to come to fruition. Making the move back to Texas with a job would give me stability and security until that dream came to reality. Not surprisingly, I wasn't hearing back from the applications, many employers won't consider an out-of-state applicant. And, even though I had made the decision to make the move, even though I had the support of my friends and family, I was still hesitant to pull the trigger. I finally sat down at my desk that day in early March and started to write an email to my real estate agent. I remember sitting there, my finger literally hovering over the "send" key, debating if I should press it, knowing that doing so would blow up my life, when the phone rang. It was a call for an interview for a job in Plano, Texas, running the cooking school at the Central Market grocery store there. I took that as a sign, and immediately hit "send".
The next few months were so intense and crazy. As I prepared my condo for sale, I had a series of phone interviews for the job, many of which were scheduled in and around contractor appointments. The condo went up for sale the weekend before Easter and sold to the first people who come to see it, three days after it was listed. It was another two weeks before I gave my notice at Sur La Table--I wanted to make sure all of the inspections and contingencies were cleared on the sale, just in case the buyers backed out. I gave my notice to Sur La Table, and two weeks later, May 8, 2017, was my last day--seven years and seven days after the store in King of Prussia opened. There's something kind of poetic in that, I think.
While I had given my notice at Sur La Table, I didn't yet have another job. I was still going through the interview process with Central Market. For those of you outside Texas, Central Market is like Whole Foods and the best European bakeries and specialty foods markets had a baby. I remember visiting the one in Houston before I moved to Washington, DC. A simply incredible food store, and they also have a cooking school and teach classes. The job for which I was being considered was the manager of their cooking school in the store in Plano, just northeast of Dallas. The last step in the interview process was an in-person interview and cooking demonstration. So in the middle of my last two weeks at Sur La Table, Central Market flew me to Dallas for the day.
By the time I got to Dallas, I had already had at least a half-dozen interviews with different folks at Central Market. I think I had more interviews to get this one job than all of my previous jobs combined. And for this last interview, they weren't giving me a lot of details. I knew it was a cooking demonstration, and I assumed I needed to prepare a menu, but they never asked me what ingredients or equipment I was going to need. I knew I was going to have about 45 minutes for the demo, so I started putting together a menu, testing and practicing recipes. A few days before I flew down, they told me that they would give me a recipe when I arrived. So much for all of my prep work. But in the end, it all worked out, and I was offered the job on May 5--three days before my last day at Sur La Table.
The rest of May was a whirlwind of packing and moving. The moving truck picked up my things on May 22, and my cat, Lulu, and I hit the road the next day. I moved into my apartment in Plano on June 3, and my first day at Central Market was June 5. I've spent the last ten weeks in training, including weeks of travel to Houston and San Antonio to visit other Central Market cooking schools. Things are finally starting to settle down a bit, giving me the chance to take a breath. And a chance to write another blog post!
When planning the recipes for my demonstration, I knew I wanted to attempt more than one dish, and I wanted there to be a theme of some kind to the menu. I also wanted the menu to utilize ingredients that were far enough out of the ordinary that I could also provide a good educational component to the presentation--in other words, I wanted to have plenty of fun facts to talk about. I settled on paella as the main dish, with Spanish cuisine as the overall theme. Paella rice, saffron, pimenton, chorizo, even the type of pan used to cook the dish--lots of great information to share during the demo. Since paella takes about 20 minutes to cook, I also wanted to have another dish or two to demo and serve while the paella was cooking, preferably an appetizer course and possibly a dessert. For the appetizer, I thought about gazpacho, but was unsure about what tomatoes would be in season in Dallas. But, I remembered a soup I'd eaten years ago that was made with garlic and almonds and garnished with grapes. So, a little research and I found it--ajo blanco, also referred to as white gazpacho. I never finished sorting out the dessert--by that time, I was told that Central Market would provide the recipes. But, here is a little taste of what could have been. Enjoy!
White Gazpacho
Traditional Ajo Blanco is made with just almonds, garlic, olive oil, vinegar and water, in fact ajo blanco literally translates to "white garlic". When researching this recipe, I found many variations that included cucumbers, grapes, granny smith apples, chicken stock, onions, you name it. The version I had tasted all those years before had grapes and cucumber in it, so I used that memory as my guide when putting together this recipe.
Serves 4 to 6
4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 cup boiling water
4 thick slices of country bread, crusts removed and cubed
1 English cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped
¾ cup green, seedless grapes
1 cup marcona almonds
1 cup cool water
1 ½ teaspoons Kosher salt
3 Tablespoons sherry vinegar
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
sliced grapes, chopped chives, extra virgin olive oil to garnish
Place the garlic in a bowl and pour the boiling water over; allow to cool to room temperature. Add the bread to the same bowl and let it sit for about 20 minutes to fully absorb the garlic water mixture. Transfer the soaked bread and garlic to a blender and add the cucumber, grapes, almonds, the additional 1 cup of cool water, salt and vinegar. Process in the blender until smooth. With the blender running, pour in the oil and blend until fully incorporated. Taste and adjust the flavor with additional salt and vinegar, and thin as needed with additional water. Chill the soup in the refrigerator for at least two hours or overnight.
To serve, divide into chilled bowls and garnish with sliced grapes, chopped chives, and a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil.
Chicken and Chorizo Paella
Paella has become known as a rather elaborate rice dish that can include shrimp, mussels, lobsters, and other exotic seafood. In reality, paella's origins are in peasant food. The traditional paella pan is thin and lightweight for easy of transport out into the fields. The field workers would build a fire, place the pan in the coals, add the ingredients, and then go back to their work while the rice cooked. The rice and spices would typically be brought from home, but any proteins would come from the fields where they were working. For example, a very traditional paella would be made with rabbit and snails. Lobster and shrimp most assuredly came to the dish after the more affluent members of society discovered paella. In this recipe, I bypass the seafood entirely, but it is very good with sauteed shrimp added just at the end of cooking.
Serves 2
½ tsp saffron
threads
2 Tbsp hot
water
2 Tbsp olive
oil, divided
3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1 inch pieces
3 ounces Spanish
chorizo sausage, cut into ¼ inch thick slices
1 white or yellow onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 large
garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon pimenton
1 cup paella rice
¾ cup green
beans, chopped
2 cups low sodium chicken stock
Kosher salt
and pepper
¼ cup fresh
parsley, chopped finely
Place the saffron threads and water in a small
bowl and let infuse for a few minutes.
Place a small paella
pan or ovenproof skillet over medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and the chorizo to the pan. Cook, stirring frequently, until the chorizo is browned and crispy. Using a slotted spoon, remove the chorizo to a plate. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Add the remaining olive oil and the chicken to the skillet. Cook, turning the pieces they begin to brown, until browned on all sides. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the chicken pieces to the same plate as the chorizo. Add the onions and bell pepper to the pan and cook, stirring frequently, about
2 minutes. Add the garlic and paprika
and continue to cook until the onions are soft, but not brown, about 3
minutes.
Add the rice and beans and stir until
coated in oil. Return the chicken and
chorizo and any accumulated juices to the pan.
Stir in the stock, saffron and its soaking liquid. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a
boil, stirring constantly. Reduce the
heat to low and let simmer, uncovered and without stirring, for about 20 minutes, or
until the rice is tender and the liquid has been absorbed. Adjust
the seasoning as necessary. Sprinkle
with parsley and serve immediately.
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